November Hurtles Past

a birthday
a wedding
a turkey
a wake
To be silly and seven and love
strawberry shortcake with blue frosting
and silly string in your hair and take a
long, long time to make your wish.

a birthday
a wedding
a turkey
a wake
love and joy and bounty of food
music for rockers, rappers and geezers
family and tribe sharing

joy and hopes
shaking hands at the seafood buffet, sealing up
the ten year crack generated by a garbage pail in the driveway

a birthday
a wedding
a turkey
a wake
a turkey for five, not eight or ten
thankful for the cancer free screening
thankful for those here and not here
not thankful for the death call in the morning
 
a birthday
a wedding
a turkey
a wake
why do they call it a wake?
the person in the box, the one you chatted up last week
you kissed his handsome nephew cheek

the one who shook hands and made the truce of the decade

at the wedding loud and playful
lies far from awake.
the small giggling boy, the thoughtful husband,

devoted father, smitten grandpa
so respected, so loved, so missed.
a birthday
a wedding
a turkey
a wake